Chapter 4
A week later and Natalie had her formal proposal ready and an attached letter from her academic advisory stating that he felt that Natalie would be a wonderful candidate for such a necessary study. After a bit of research she discovered the mental health of investigators hadn't be studied much and that felt like some sort of disrespect to those that sacrificed themselves to hunt down criminals. She knew from some of her preliminary research that NCIS took cases that ranged anywhere from fraud and theft as well as drug abuse and violent crimes. She was looking forward to interviewing special agents and hoped she could get interview with some of the support staff as well. She also started looking into the Navy and Marine Corps to better understand her subjects work environment.
She also had her classes planned out. One, Introduction to Human Anatomy, was a first year undergraduate course she was taking over for a professor on sabbatical. It was planned out in advance for her and she only had to make a few adjustments to her own personal style. She also had to teach a Psychology course. This one was the Stereotyping and Social Cognition course. It was resurrected this year when enough students signed up. It was something Natalie found fascinating herself and had studied at Columbia. She also found that her masters thesis on Transgendered Identity research would be very beneficial for the class and was looking forward to teaching it. She was a little nervous as this would be a course of her own design but looked forward to the challenge. She had gotten over her jitters about helping and teaching in a class when she was working on her masters' degrees. She mostly taught tutorials which were smaller groups from the class itself but attended the lectures as often as she could.
She spoke with her grandpa last night, as had been a nightly thing for them. Sometimes it would be earlier in the evening and others it would be later. He asked her how her Krav Maga lessons were going as well as school. He was always interested in how her day was. He told her a visitors pass would be waiting for her at NCIS headquarters on the Navy yard. She just had to give her name to security and they would call for someone to bring her to his office this morning. She was actually very excited to see where he worked and to see the Navy yard. Her taxi pulled up to the main security gate on the yard and the driver wound her window down so the officer could speak with her.
"Name and business today ma'am?" the young man asked. Natalie wished she knew more to know if he was Navy or Marine and what his rank was.
"Natalie Kane, to see Director Morrow, he's expecting me" replied Natalie. He checked a clip board for her name while another officer with a dog walked around the car. When they nodded to the man speaking to her he gave the taxi driver directions to the building and doors she needed to go to.
"Register with security when you enter and they will take care of you from there. Have a good day ma'am." He walked back to his booth while the other officer and dog went to their own.
"Been a while since I've had a fare out this way, glad he told me where to go," her driver said to her with a chuckle. He mentioned when he picked her up that he was retired now and only came in when they got super busy. Apparently a Monday morning the week before Labor Day weekend was busy in DC.
They pulled up and Natalie paid her fare and grabbed her bags. She thanked the driver and entered the doors. Upon entering she saw a rather serious looking security set up like one would see at an airport. There was a small line up of people but most seemed to work there and almost proceeded as if on autopilot. Natalie placed her bags on the conveyor belt to be x-rayed and walked through the metal detector. The security guard at the other end asked for her name since she wasn't displaying an ID card.
"Natalie Kane," she responded and held out her arms when he gestured with his wand. She beeped upon going in and it was her apartment keys she had forgotten to place in a bucket. "Sorry about that," she told him.
"No problem ma'am, happens all the time." Another guard was calling someone and they told her to wait on a bench nearby as someone would be down for her in a minute. She looked at them with a confused face, how did they know she needed a guide? Do they know, or do they do this with every visitor she wondered. "Director Morrow informed us you would need an escort," said the mind reading guard. She chuckled and nodded her head at him before taking her seat.
She didn't wait long before a beautiful woman came walking up to her with her hand held out, "Miss Kane?" she asked.
"That's what my pass says," joked Natalie. The woman smiled and they shook hands. She was taller than Natalie by a few inches, with dark very curly hair. She was darker skinned and introduced herself and Cynthia.
"If you'll come with me to the elevator," Cynthia explained and led her to an elevator. "I'm the directors secretary and personal assistant. He's been talking about you all week. Just to me though. So don't feel like everyone knows who you are. He is not the kind of person who gossips about his personal life." Cynthia was sweet and they entered an empty elevator. She pressed a button for the 3rd floor and away they went.
"What has he said about me?" Natalie wondered out loud.
Cynthia smiled at her, "Not much, just a little background for me, that you are his long lost granddaughter and that you were going to be bringing by a formal proposal to do some research study with the agency for your doctorate." The elevator stopped at the 2nd floor and two people came on and up they all went for the 3rd floor. "Once everything is approved I'll be the one to get you your Identification paperwork together and put through so you don't need to have an escort every time you visit."
The elevator stopped with another ding at the 3rd floor and their riding companions exited and went their separate ways. Cynthia led Natalie past a bunch of cubicles with people hard at work. She heard someone yell 'DiNozzo' at someone and kept following Cynthia up the stairs. "The directors office is just up here" she said and led her to a silver door. Cynthia scanned her badge and the doors automatic locks released. Inside was a small reception area. It contained a desk that Natalie assumed was Cynthia's and a small couch opposite it. There were a couple plotted plants and a beautiful view out the window of the Navy yard. Across from the entrance was another steel door. This one was open. And upon hearing their entry her grandfather appeared.
"Thank you Cynthia," he said to his assistant and welcomed Nat inside. "How was the ride over? Traffic wasn't too bad?" he asked her as he shut his door.
Natalie stood awkwardly in his office. It was huge and she didn't know where to sit. He had a desk with two chairs opposite it. There was also a conference table and a small casual seating area. "No traffic was okay," she said and followed him over to the two sofas at the far side of the room. They sat on separate sofas and Natalie pulled out her proposal to put on the coffee table before them. "The driver was very informative. He's lived here his whole life and was giving me bits of trivia."
"That's good to hear," Tom responded. "Is this your proposal?"
"Yes, Dr. Edward Carpenter is my academic advisor, he's included a letter on my behalf as well." She told him.
"Wonderful, now, how is your Krav Maga going?" he asked her. He spotted the bruise along her collar bone that she told him about recently.
She chuckled, "Slowly, or at least that's how it feels to me. Eph says I'm a fast learner. I feel like all my bruises and aches say otherwise."
Tom chuckled with her. He knew a few members of Mossad as their agencies worked together at times, he knew from their stories it was a rough learning curve but worthwhile in the end. "Yes it's not the most delicate of fighting techniques. But you seem to be enjoying what you are learning from our phone calls."
She smiled, "It's interesting. Eph keeps reminding me to not get discouraged and frustrated that I'm just a beginner still."
"Of course, did you have anything else going on today?" asked Tom.
"Not until my session with Eph tonight. I've got everything together for classes in two weeks and I've got a few journals at home I'm reading for my thesis."
Tom smiled and rose picking up her proposal in the process, "Excellent, I'm going to give this to Cynthia on our way out and SecNav will be signing off on it."
Natalie rose in shock. "What?"
"I spoke with him on the weekend and he is 100% on board with your research study. He just needed the proposal to sign off on some paperwork with and to have something on file for what you will be doing, and now I'm going to give you a personal tour if you'd permit me to. And I'd like to be able to introduce you as me granddaughter if that's alright. I know you'll get less flack if agents know in advance." Tom walked her out of his office and handed the proposal to Cynthia, "Can you fax a copy to SecNav with the paperwork and get started on the identification for Miss Kane please?"
"Already set up sir, just make a stop at security and they can finalize a badge and have it ready next time she visits." Cynthia then winked at her, clearly she knew all along how this was going to proceed, "Just give security a call when you come back and they will ensure to have your badge at the front gate for you" she told Natalie.
Natalie felt stunned. She wasn't sure if this would go through so quickly, or at all really. She was happy. She hoped she would help some of the individuals with their issues and help them cope with the stresses of the job. She had been looking back into some of her studies with regards to work related stress and coping with traumatic events. She hoped it would come in handy for her.
Tom lead her from the offices and stopped with her at the balcony overlooking the cubicles and a wall that Natalie noticed was filled with Most Wanted pictures. "Behind us is MTAC, its our communication center and is a high security room. We conduct missions and have video conferencing from there." Natalie glanced back at the big MTAC works and saw more silver doors, one which had some special looking window at about eye height. She imagined it was for retinal scans. She knew with her proposal came a security check that would be done and that if everything went well should would be given a high level access in order to talk with agents about cases.
"Below is the bullpen. At least one. There are two more on the 2nd floor and one smaller one on this floor. Two groups of agents work below and some have to share desks. We also have agents posted at other locations on bases as well as what we call agents afloat, they work directly on boats, usually the larger ones like battleships and cruisers."
He led her down the stairs and stopped between some cubicle desks, "Agent Gibbs can I have a moment, I know you are busy with a case." A man with greying hair stood from his desk nodding his head for the director to continue.
Gibbs POV
He first noticed her when Cynthia brought her off the elevator. He wondered who she was. Obviously pretty young but her red hair caught his attention. He watched her covertly and couldn't help admiring her figure and beauty. He caught DiNozzo looking as well and yelled at him for it. DiNozzo went back to work but Gibbs watched the beautiful young woman until she disappeared into the directors office. He missed Kate giving him and update and noticed after she called his name.
Always a sucker for a redhead, focus Gunny he thought to himself and nodded along to what Kate was saying. She went back to her computer and DiNozzo started telling him what he found out from an interview with the dead lieutenants squad. Gibbs nodded and told them good work, but where is the damn weapon!
He watched the director come out of his office with the redhead talking with her and showing her a few things. He put his head back down to keep reading his emails. It was then he noticed and emergency notice from Cynthia. He opened it,
Attention All Personnel,
SecNav has authorized a doctoral candidate to conduct a research study on the effects on investigators and support staff when dealing with the stresses and traumatic events of the job. All Agents are expected to at least have one interview with doctoral candidate Natalie Kane and are encouraged to participate. Director Morrow will be giving her a tour today and be introducing her. Any questions and concerns should be directed to myself and a schedule for interviews will be sent along as soon as its been confirmed.
Thank you,
Cynthia Norton,
Assistant to the Director
Naval Criminal Investigative Service
Gibbs looked up when he heard the director address him and nodded his ascent. Now he knew who she was and why she was here. He didn't like the idea of having an interview but if it meant getting to watch her he was okay with that.
"I'd like to introduce Natalie Kane, she's a doctoral candidate that will be doing a research study with us. Further details will be forthcoming." the director addressed them.
"Why hello there," Tony said getting up to shake her hand, "Very Special Agent Anthony DiNozzo, Tony."
Morrow glared at him, "She's also my granddaughter."
Natalie was grinning and holding back a laugh. Tony looked properly chastised. "I'm Catelyn Todd, Kate." The ladies shook hands and Kate went back to her desk. "What kind of research study are you doing?"
Gibbs piped up, "Check your email Kate."
"Oh" Kate said, while bringing up her email.
DiNozzo read it off "A study of the psychological effects of our jobs. Interesting."
Natalie smiled at them, "I promise to be gentle. And I would never ask you to disclose anything you are uncomfortable with." Morrow then directed her to the front of Gibbs desk.
"This is Senior Special Agent Gibbs," Morrow introduced him. He stood up and shook her hand.
"Nice to meet you." Gibbs was captivated by her eyes. He had never seen such pale blue eyes. Even Shannon's eyes weren't that pale. They were beautiful. He could see the intelligence and vulnerability behind them. He wanted to know her story, more than he had with anyone really. This was dangerous. She was far too young for him and she was the director's granddaughter. It would only pose trouble. He needed to keep himself focused on treating her like he treated Abby, like a daughter.
"You too sir." She said to him.
He chuckled, "Not a sir." He sat back down and told her just to call him Gibbs. When they walked away to continue their tour Gibbs couldn't help checking out her ass. Goddamnit he thought getting mad at himself. "I'm getting coffee" he told his team before walking off. He needed to clear his head.
It been too long since he'd been intimate with a woman. He should call Cecile and see if she was free this week. She was his latest lady friend and they were keeping things pretty casual. She picked him up and dropped him off on occasion and it drove his team nuts. He smile thinking of the last time they were together. It was good. Not great but good. Neither were interested in marriage, which made him grateful. He'd tried since Shannon and Kelly's death but it never seemed to work out right. No one could replace Shannon, and no one ever really came close to her personality. It was hard for many women to handle his job over the long run. Maybe he'd find someone one day, but at his age, he doubted it.